DAUGHTER OF THE EARTH
A life-size veiled woman is depicted on a painting, except the painting isn't made of paint but fabrics. Her figure is shaped by surfaces in deep colours, different textures and nature motifs.
The clothing, headdress and decorative elements of my women are chosen regardless of the dominant cultural hegemony, they are universal. I want to go beyond great dividers such as religious identity, etnicity and class. Boundaries imposed by symbols of power are left out to increase understanding humanity.
Too often we define ourselves as consumers of nature, an outsider, or worse: operators, locked in our limited view. Humans have had a long history of overestimating their being. 'It is the rational mind that is the fundamental difference between us and other beings' , many argued. But it is exactly this facet in humankind that creates false distinctions. It is this factor of our being that creates an imagined distance. A distance that can not be bridged by thinking, but only by truly seeing and beeing. In my life as wel as in my portraits I surch the harmony and connection with all that surrounds and transcends us. Which is actually a religious desire, to feel wholeness.
My works “Daughter of the earth “represents the yearning to merge with the beauty and energy of all living things. My textile portraits witnessing oneself within nature. I still search of finding harmony and connection with all that surrounds and transcends us.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
'It remains astonishing that I can depict a human in fabrics. Where the zigzag stitch used to only serve to prevent fraying, it is now a way to shape textile portraits. Barbara Pronk (1969) has studied Fine Arts at Artez in Arnhem. Her work was conceptual and spanned multiple media. For a long time her works in textile remained private. Until 2023, when she started and exposed her current work, portraits in textiles.